How far we've come. A few years ago "transport poverty" was just a niche academic concept.
Last week, the EU has published its recommendations on how to tackle transport poverty, along with a helpful data dashboard
THREAD with my first impressions transport.ec.europa.eu/news-events/ne…
The reason why "transport poverty" is suddenly getting attention is ETS 2, which is expected to increase motor fuel prices a lot from 2027, and the associated "Social Climate Fund" which aims at supporting groups that are vulnerable to such price increases.
The Commission outlines a number of eligible measures which Member States can include in their SCF plans to tackle transport poverty
The Commission has also put forward a definition of transport poverty with 3/4 dimensions: Affordability, Availability, Accessibility and Adequacy.
(little self-congratulatory note here that these dimensions were inspired by a paper we wrote in 2016)
The Commission is recommending to Member States to introduce "social leasing schemes" to (as far as I understand) help lower-income households afford electric vehicles, following the example of France
At the same time the Commission recommends prioritizing more sustainable transport modes and reducing car dependency
The Comission emphasises the need for indicators to identify vulnerable groups, as the first step in a "strategic approach for combatting and preventing transport poverty"
The Annexes provide examples of indicators for the various dimensions of transport poverty, based on another recent report (linked below)
(second self-congratulatory note as some of these indicators are inspired by my publications)
But probably the most interesting thing is the "Transport Poverty Hub" - a data dashboard where indicators of accessibility and transport poverty can be visualised for the whole of the EU
(note that you need EU Login credentials to access the dashboard but don't let that discourage you - anyone can get access credentials you just need to register)
The Dashboard basically lets you map indicators of accessibility / travel time to different destinations (opportunities/people, primary schools, health care) by different transport modes (walking, cycling, public transport and driving) to identify where access is difficult
Note that there was no comparable EU-wide data basis on this to date - and in many countries not even national or regional statistics, so this is a huge step forward.
The indicators are estimated at a 1*1km grid resolution, so I can for example visualize accessibility to primary schools by public transport in and around Dortmund where I live...
...but they can also be aggregated at a higher level, so I can see for example how average accessibility to primary schools by public transport compares across municipalities in the region where I live...
...or across different European regions (at NUTS 3 / 2 / 1 level)
And for each indicator, several thresholds can be set , including an "accessibility poverty gap" that is meant to measure how bad the problem is overall
From what I hear this is a first version of the Dashboard and it will be improved with more data and possibly more indicators in the future. Overall great work congratulations!
@UnrollHelper please unroll
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